Related papers: Autonomy and Perception for Space Mining
Future infrastructure construction on the lunar surface will require semi- or fully-autonomous operation from robots deployed at the build site. In particular, tasks such as electrical outfitting necessitate transport, routing, and fine…
In disaster-stricken environments, it's vital to assess the damage quickly, analyse the stability of the environment, and allocate resources to the most vulnerable areas where victims might be present. These missions are difficult and…
This paper develops a methodology for collaborative human-robot exploration that leverages implicit coordination. Most autonomous single- and multi-robot exploration systems require a remote operator to provide explicit guidance to the…
The Swarmathon is a swarm robotics programming challenge that engages college students from minority-serving institutions in NASA's Journey to Mars. Teams compete by programming a group of robots to search for, pick up, and drop off…
To extend the limited scope of autonomy used in prior missions for operation in distant and complex environments, there is a need to further develop and mature autonomy that jointly reasons over multiple subsystems, which we term…
Autonomous navigation is a long-standing field of robotics research, which provides an essential capability for mobile robots to execute a series of tasks on the same environments performed by human everyday. In this chapter, we present a…
As autonomous systems are being developed in multiple industries it has been recognized that a phased approach is needed both for technical development and user acceptance. Partially in response, the automotive and aircraft industries have…
The paper proposes a reliable and robust planning solution to the long range robotic navigation problem in extremely cluttered environments. A two-layer planning architecture is proposed that leverages both the environment map and the…
Long-term autonomy is one of the most demanded capabilities looked into a robot. The possibility to perform the same task over and over on a long temporal horizon, offering a high standard of reproducibility and robustness, is appealing.…
To better optimise the global food supply chain, robotic solutions are needed to automate tasks currently completed by humans. Namely, phenotyping, quality analysis and harvesting are all open problems in the field of agricultural robotics.…
Machine learning, particularly deep learning, is being increasing utilised in space applications, mirroring the groundbreaking success in many earthbound problems. Deploying a space device, e.g. a satellite, is becoming more accessible to…
The ability to efficiently and effectively explore planetary surfaces is currently limited by the capability of wheeled rovers to traverse challenging terrains, and by pre-programmed data acquisition plans with limited in-situ flexibility.…
Shared autonomy methods, where a human operator and a robot arm work together, have enabled robots to complete a range of complex and highly variable tasks. Existing work primarily focuses on one human sharing autonomy with a single robot.…
Active communication between robots and humans is essential for effective human-robot interaction. To accomplish this objective, Cloud Robotics (CR) was introduced to make robots enhance their capabilities. It enables robots to perform…
An effective human-robot collaborative process results in the reduction of the operator's workload, promoting a more efficient, productive, safer and less error-prone working environment. However, the implementation of collaborative robots…
In this paper, we present the development of 4-DOF robot limbs, which we call Moonbots, designed to connect in various configurations with each other and wheel modules, enabling adaptation to different environments and tasks. These modular…
The lunar geological record contains a rich archive of the history of the inner Solar System, including information relevant to understanding the origin and evolution of the Earth-Moon system, the geological evolution of rocky planets, and…
We have a vision of a day when autonomous robots can collaborate with humans as assistants in performing complex tasks in the physical world. This vision includes that the robots will have the ability to communicate with their human…
The space challenges do exist at every stride on a human expedition to Mars that arise due to galactic natural phenomena and artificial technologies. This paper emphasizes on Mars orbital and planetary challenges encountered from orbit to…
As humankind prepares to establish outposts and infrastructure on the Moon, the ability to manufacture parts and buildings on-site is crucial. While transporting raw materials from Earth can be costly and time-consuming, in-situ resource…